Wednesday, June 7, 2017

ADF&G Estimates Togiak Herring Ex-Vessel at $1.74 Million

A season summary on the Togiak, Alaska, herring season says the cumulative harvest of the Togiak purse seine fleet in 2017 was 15,975 tons, or about 99.3 percent of the 16,085 quota set by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The gillnet harvest was 1,428 tons of the 6,883 ton quota.

The ADF&G report out on June 6 documented 19 vessels in the purse seine fishery, up from 17 a year ago, and 15 vessels in the gillnet fishery, up from 3 a year ago.

No companies registered to by herring spawn-on-kelp in 2017, so no openings or commercial harvest occurred.

ADF&G placed the projected ex-vessel value of the 2017 Togiak herring fishery at about $1.74 million.

That’s based on an advance price estimate of $100 per ton, and does not include any postseason adjustments.

The fisheries, this year, were managed for a maximum exploitation rate of 20 percent of the preseason biomass estimate. The purse seine harvest had an average roe content of 11 percent and the average reported weight was 408 grams. The gillnet harvest had a 12 percent roe content and 415 gram average weight. The combined harvest equals 17,403 tons of 12 percent roe content and 409 gram, 11 percent roe content herring. The Dutch Harbor food and bait fishery has not yet occurred.

ADF&G said that if the Dutch Harbor fishery harvest is equal to the quote of 1,727 tons, then the total harvest for 2017 would be estimated at 19,130 tons, and based on the preseason biomass estimate of 130,852 tons, the 2017 exploitation rate would be about 15 percent.

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